NEUMANIA, a database for all things Japanese rock. The database contains artist profiles, band history, discographies, translations, lyrics, reviews, and much more.
If you are familiar with the band Fuzylog. you might be interested in this. Vocalist トライチ(Toraichi) formerly known as junjun, as well as guitarist ロミ(Romi), guitarist ひえ(Hie), and bassist マキ(Maki) have joined up once again!
Their new band is named ワン★スター(One★Star), and will release their first single entitled “MIRACLE MUSIC SHOWTIME” on the 6th of October. It will come with 4 tracks, and will be available for 1,600yen. More details below!
2010/10/06 MIRACLE MUSIC SHOWTIME (1,600yen)
Track listing:
01 ONE more dance time
02 MIRACLE MUSIC SHOWTIME
03 absolution
04 hey!OK COMPUTER
Zull(ex-The Candy Spooky Theater / NOOKICKY) has recently announced on his blog that he’s going solo! His solo project is named “white col ward”, and he will be performing for the first time in October on the 21st! He will be joining his former bandmates from The Candy Spooky Theater at their “SPOOKY HALLOWEEN 2010″ live. He also mentioned that everyone should look forward to October, because he will be putting music up on MySpace as well. Details on his first live are below!
2010/10/21 Meguro Rock Maykan
The CANDY SPOOKY THEATER PRESENTS
SPOOKY HALLOWEEN 2010 — SPECIAL 2 DAYS HALLOWEEN PARTY
【TRICK】or【TREAT】
OPEN: 17:30 / START: 18:00 ADV: 2,800yen / DOOR: 3,300yen HOST:
The CANDY SPOOKY THEATER
“FRANKENSTEIN” VERSION (FETISH & MEDICAL HORROR) GUEST LINEUP:
L’eprica / エルム(elm) / white cole ward / SaTaN (ALICE in the DEAD WORLD)
Really exciting news for those of you who follow Mar(ex. BrandΦ/SectMateria). She has joined a new band named レクレンズ(rekurenzu/reclense). The band will be a four piece group, with the following line-up:
Vocalist みさき(Masaki) (Rumored to be a female vocalist)
Guitar/Program クマ(Kuma) (ex.BeaU / AibeLL / GizeL)
Bass ゆずき(Yuzuki) (ex.焔(Homura)
Drums まぁ(Mar) (ex.BrandΦ / SectMateria / GizeL)
Already the band has plans for two releases! One will be a live distributed single only, completely free as well. It will be entitled “(originality walker)”. You can pick this up on their October 16th live, which is their first live! You can also purchase in advanced, the band’s 1st maxi single entitled “(filter maker)”!
News for 2011 is already sounding promising. A lot of music fans are itching for that darker heavier sound that has been slowly leaving the bands known for it. However varell seems to be promising such a sound. varell will not be revealed until the 1st of January next year, but they have a story to tell. Their music will be based on raw human emotions of pain and insanity, with the promise of some glimpse of the light in the distant scenery.
Absolutely no information will be revealed about them until next year, but they are someone to keep an eye on! The band opened their OHP on the 1st of September, and will update it when the near year strikes. You can check out their OHP at varell.jp.
There is an interesting new visual artist by the name of ピコ (Piko) that has recently begun to pop up in the visual scene. For those unfamiliar with the young musician, his career began in 2007 when he started to upload videos of himself singing online. However, it wasn’t until late last year when his career as a vocalist really took off.
Piko’s debut release, an album entitled, “Infinity” was released on September 9th, 2009 quickly launching his career to what it is today. Now Piko has announced that he will be releasing his second release, a single, entitled, “Story” later this year on October 13th. However, the most interesting information is who makes up his support members for the single. Popular and well-known musicians such as Takuya of An Café, Intetsu of Ayabie, and Levin of La’cryma Christi are featured as support.
The single will be available in two different types, a regular edition as well as a limited one. The regular edition will be CD only and is priced at 1200 while the limited with come with a bonus DVD and is priced at ¥1500. Those interested in purchasing a copy can find it available on Sony Music Japan’s webshop or you can purchase the limited edition at JapanDiscoveries over here.
For more information on Piko, be sure to check out his OHP and don’t forget to add him on Twitter @piko_niconico!
This band isn’t exactly what people would call rock, but they really do give off the “rock vibe”. The band is named →Pia-no-jaC←, and are a two piece band that uses a strange combination of instruments. HAYATO plays the piano, which is common enough. However, band member HIRO plays the cajón, an instrument that is commonly not used.
They formed in 2005, and have always performed with these two instruments. In 2009 around November, PEACE PRODUCTION inc picked them up under their sublabel PEACEFUL RECORDS. The following year in September, they released their first album “First Contact”, and impressed their audiences.
Now the band is releasing their 5th album entitled “THIS WAY UP”, and it will be on sale on the 1st of September. It comes with 7 tracks, and will be available for 2,100yen. It comes with the making of their PV “残月(sangetsu)” which you can watch at the bottom of this post. The single also has two types coming out, however one is a live distributed version only. It comes with the same track listings, however it will have the PV for “残月(sangetsu)” as it’s DVD bonus. Details below!
2010/09/01 THIS WAY UP (2,100yen) Track Listing:
01 Chaos in “Em”
02 残月(sangetsu)
03 The last Resort
04 Spin Doll
05 それでも猫は追いかける(sore demo neko ha aikakeru)
06 輪舞曲 ～Rondo～(rinbukyoku~rondo~)
07 Friends
There is some interesting news for fans of visual bands! Blurring the lines between boy-bands and visual kei is a brand new group named, “VKB428” which is short for, “Visual-kei Boys Shibuya”. The 428 is a play on words and gives the band name a similar look to that of popular idol unit “AKB48”. Another similarity to that of the idol group is that the band will be separated up into three different groups, V, K, and B teams. The first two teams will perform, while the last team will serve as substitute members.
The band’s producers are both familiar faces, vocalist Seiji of SAMURAI BALL, along with Yoshinobu Toida, who has worked with legendary bands such as GLAY and X Japan. Currently, the group is comprised of only seven members in total and has just held their first live this past Saturday. The seven member line-up was chosen carefully from over two thousand entries during auditions.
During their first live appearance, the group performed four songs, danced, as well and put on a short skit. Shota, VKB428’s leader, even filled in the audience as to how much hard work the members had to put into preparing. He said that they had trained for a month and often went without sleep. In addition to the rest of the show, two special guest made an appearance on stage, vocalist Yugiri and drummer Kazami of DaizyStripper!
The band will perform about once per month to begin with, their next live has already been set for September 25th. More information will be provided in the near future. However, we are curious, what do you the fans think of this take on visual bands?
It seems there is always something to post about when it comes to new musicians joining Twitter. This time it’s two members of the recently formed band, Levia!
Levia formed just earlier this year in Spring and is made up of members: vocalist Kousei (ex.LAVERITE), guitarist YO- (ex.時空海賊SEVENSEAS), bassist Tatsuya （ex.時空海賊SEVENSEAS), and drummer TAMO （ex.Velllapis). They have released one maxi-single, entitled “Fairy scale” just last month on July 7th. You can find samples of all three tracks from the single on their Official MySpace over here.
As for the members who have just recently joined Twitter, you can now find bassist Tatsuya @tatsuya_levia and guitarist YO- @YO_Levia_VEGETA.
Seika(ex-bis)’s band has finally been reveiled! The band’s name is Blu-BiLLion, and it will be a six piece band featuring ex-Vogus Image and ex-bis members. Check out the line-up below!
Vo. ミケ(Mike)(ex-すうぃーぷ☆ザ☆ぼーど(sweep the board) / the Riotts.)
Gt. 龍耶(Tatsuya) (ex-Vogus Image / CANDY TRiP(support))
Gt. mag
Ba. 珀(Haku) (ex- VAL+IX+LIA / Nero / バビロン(Babylon) / Moran(Support)
Keys. Teru
Dr. Seika (ex-雀羅(jakura) / bis
They also revealed that on the 20th of October, they will be releasing their first single entitled “Count Down”. Blu-BiLLioN has an OHP, however there is a countdown for 18 days until the band will be revealed. So we must all wait very patiently for it. Until then, you can visit the page here.
This is really good news for Seika and his bandmates. Anyone excited for it?
Vocalist CUTT (ex.Shame, skyfish, ORCA, EVERYTHING MUST PASS)
Back in May, we reported the incredibly unfortunate news that グルグル映畫館(Guruguru Eigakan) had to go on an indefiniate hiatus due to vocalist Amano’s health issues. Unfortunately, the band is still currently on hiatus, but you can now find one of their members in a new unit!
Fans can now see drummer, 前田一知(Maeda Kazutomo), in his new band, “前田前田(Maeda Maeda) alongside vocalist CUTT (ex.Shame). Further information on the band is limited at this time, however, you can find vocalist CUTT’s OHP over here.
yazzmad is a brand new band that form just April 5th of this year. It was created by the frontman, vocalist ナオキ(Naoki), ex member of 斜GIRL(ShaGIRL)!
Line-up:
Vo. ナオキ(Naoki) ex クロノス(Chronos) / otoiro / 斜GIRL(ShaGIRL)
Gt. 健希(Genki)
Ba. 巧(Kou)
Dr. 裕哉(Yuuya)
The band to date has only released one demo single entitled “ハロー (Hello)”, which was released the day they formed, April 15th. However, the band made an announcement recently. They will be releasing their first single on September 1st! Their debut single is entitled -manic種子と雨。-(-manic shushi to ame.-). The single will be released with only two tracks, but I’m sure those of you who heard the single are looking forward to this, right?
Pre-order:Brand X
If you’ve missed out on listening to their demo, you can listen to it on their OHP.
リバティーン(Libertine), is a band that formed not long ago in Tokyo with only two members; vocalist Kou and bassist Shin. They’ve finally made a return and have revealed two new members, making them now a four piece band!
Line up:
Vo. こう(Kou)
Gt. kazu
Ba. Shin
Dr. 怜(rei)
This will be the band’s debut single, and it will be entitled “FLASH BACK”. It contains two tracks, and will be sold for 1,260yen. Full details below!
Track Listing:
01 FLASH BACK
02 ラピスラズリ(lapis lazuli)
BounDEE has been pumping out some massively great bands lately. white white sisters is no exception. If you’ve never heard about this experimental rock band, I’ll give you the run down.
white white sisters consist of two members. Guitar, programmer, and vocalist Yuya Matsumura, as well as drummer Kazumasa Ishii. Sometimes they are even joined by VJ Tajima Kouta, if you want to read more about him in particular, check his MySpace out here.
The band began sometime in Nagoya back in 2008. In October of 2008 the band participated on a V.A. album entitled “Total Feedback”. The V.A. specialized in the shoegaze genre, featuring such artists like PLASTIC GIRL IN CLOSET, Luminous Orange, Brown Sugar, lilly of the valley, and mash.
2008/10/08 Total Feedback
Track Listing:
01 Tay Rail Bridge by Luminous Orange
02 Vapour Trail by Hata Yusuke / Hata Yusuke Group
03 plastic Shoes by PLASTIC GIRL IN CLOSET
04 ハイヒ゛ス (haibizu) by condor44
05 sunny sundayn I love you by 死んだ僕の彼女 (shin da boku no kanojo)
06 冬青(fuyuao) by monocism
07 standard by Ca-p
08 love scene by Brown Sugar
09 glider by lily of the valley
10 garden (Alternate version) by mash
11 spica by white white sisters
12 The birds by John juhl’s Cornfield
This year in February on the 7th, the band participated at a live with the telephones and OGRE YOU ASSHOLE at Nagoya Diamond Hall. The band was the opening act. This month on the 7th, the band released their first mini album entitled “〔euphoriaofeuphobia〕”. It can be purchased for 1,500yen currently. The mini contains five tracks, which also includes the band’s popular song “imperfect conflict”.
2010/07/07 〔euphoriaofeuphobia〕 Track Listing:
01 falling down
02 sns
03 pigs
04 imperfect conflict
05 grader has been survived
Here’s the second part to Dear Dolce’s new band intro. リロード(Reload). This is a fresh new four piece band with a darker visual style. If you’ve heard of bands like Vell;ze, you may recognize these guys!
line up:
Vo. 夜季(Yoki) ex-ヴェルゼ (Vell;ze)
Gt. 磔(Taku) ex-ヴェルゼ (Vell;ze)
Ba. くゆる(Kuyuru)
Dr. 彩璃(Sairi)
You guys will be able to get a taste of this band’s heavier sound on September 1st, when they’ll release their 1st maxi single entitled “LOST MIND”. It will come with three tracks, and sell for 1,260yen.
2010/09/01 LOST MIND Track Listing:
01 LOST MIND
02 残滓に唄う子守唄(zanshi ni utau komoriuta)
03 Abortion
You can purchase the above single at the band’s first live! It will be held at Ikebukuro RUIDO K3 on the 1st of September. Also if you go to the live, you’ll get to see two really cool session bands! Details below.
キッド(Kid) is a band that will be having their first live on August 10th at Shibuya RUIDO K2. This band has a line up of some people you might recognize! It has ex-電脳メロウ(Dennou Romeo), メロウ(mello), GeNe, and 欲望解放協会テレサ(Teresa). They just recently opened their OHP as well, so definitely check that out.
Line-up:
Vo. 康和(Yasukazu)
Gt.慎太郎(Shintaro) ex- (Aya) / GeNe
Ba. 静流(Shizuru) ex- Uggdracil / 欲望解放協会テレサ(Teresa)
Dr. ヒデキ(Hideki) ex メロウ(mello)
Fun fact about Hideki is he was a former roadie for ムック(MUCC)!
Beginning as a news blog NEUMANIA was born Jan. 1st, 2009 with the dream to reach out all over the world to Japanese music fans. After a few months, it was decided it was time to bring the site through a metamorphosis. In Aug. 2009, NEUMANIA returned with a new domain, a new concept, and with even higher ambitions.
NEUMANIA is now not only a news site, but a growing database that will feature artist profiles, discographies, band history, lyrics, and much more. We strive to bring you all the latest news daily on Japanese rock bands and cover a variety of genres. This includes, but is not limited to, industrial, metal, alternative, punk, and visual kei.
